An enormous weekend for the world’s largest cruise firm as Carnival Corporation finalizes contracts with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to construct 5 new cruise ships costing greater than $3.4 billion.

The ultimate order provides a fifth ship to a memorandum of settlement between Carnival and Fincantieri introduced in December 2015 calling for the development of simply 4 ships by 2020.  

The ships embrace two that shall be constructed for Costa Asia for deployment in China, two for Princess Cruises and one designated for P&O Cruises Australia, with deliveries anticipated in 2019 and 2020, Carnival mentioned over the weekend.

Fincantieri confirmed that the whole worth of the contracts exceeds 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion).

The contracts have been formalized throughout a signing ceremony held Saturday as a part of the official handover ceremony for Holland America Line’s MS Koningsdam at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera, Italy.

The new ships for each Costa Asia and P&O Cruises Australia are anticipated to be 135,500-ton vessels with the capability to hold 4,200 passengers. The 143,700-ton, 3,560-passenger ships for Princess Cruises would be the model’s fourth and fifth Royal-class vessels, that includes the identical design used on Royal Princess, Regal Princess and the brand new Majestic Princess coming in 2017.

The 5 new ships throughout three manufacturers shall be constructed at Fincantieri’s shipyards in Monfalcone and Marghera, Italy.

Carnival Corporation has now taken supply of two new ships in 2016 – AIDAprima for AIDA Cruises and MS Koningsdam for Holland America Line. Including the 5 simply ordered, Carnival Corporation has a complete of 16 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2016 and 2020.

“Today has been especially exciting for our company, our partners and our guests, as we celebrated the arrival of our amazing MS Koningsdam ship and officially signed agreements with Fincantieri to build five new cruise ships for the future,” mentioned Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald at Saturday’s ceremony. “Supporting our goal to exceed guest expectations on every cruise, these new ships will create a whole new level of excitement and opportunity to deliver experiences that our guests will not only remember for the rest of their lives, but will also share with others. Using our strategic fleet enhancement plan to delight our guests is an important part of our measured growth strategy, which includes replacing less efficient ships with newer, larger and more efficient vessels over a very specific period of time.”

The finalized contract with Fincantieri is a results of the memorandum of settlement introduced by Carnival Corporation and Fincantieri in December 2015, and builds on the bigger strategic shipbuilding partnership introduced by the 2 corporations in March 2015. Specific ship options and deployment particulars shall be introduced by every model at a future date.